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The Benjamin Franklin-Lafayette Seminars at Le Château de La Napoule; History and Achievements
By Stylanos Nicolaidis, CNRS, Collège de France.
84 Boulevard du Maréchal Joffre ; 92340 Bourg La Reine, France. snicolaidis@laposte.net  The adventure - yes the Adventure - started in 1974. Eliot Stellar was the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania where I was spending my sabbatical year as a visiting Professor at the Institute of Neurological Sciences of that University. My work with Alan Epstein on thirst and with Thomas Langfitt as a neurosurgeon was about to finish when the beloved Provost Eliot, with a glass of champagne at hand, told me the charming story of the "Chateau of Henry Clews at La Napoule" near Cannes, entrusted to the University by the Clews Foundation.
[Henry Clews, a disciple of Rodin, was a talented classic and surrealist sculptor (before Dali's time) and, having married the daughter of a Philadelphian banker, he was able to spend a lot of money as an "American" to materialize his artistic follies. He purchased a Roman-Sarasin castle and built on top of its ruins an enchanted little "paradise." The medieval walls of the castle overhang the waves of the port and marina of La Napoule, and include a chapel, marvellous gardens, and the "living facilities," ie the apartment with its tower-located rooms and the outhouses for the servants. They were all built in an old, medieval sort of style, around the 17th century, with thick wooden doors and furniture stripped and brought from an old Spanish Abbey and shipped to La Napoule. Clews' sculptures decorate the antique furniture. Everywhere the eye sees nothing but esthetic and picturesque images. As an illustration, is one of Eliot's stories: to honour him I gave him Clews's own bedroom with its monumental four-poster-bed. Next morning, I was inquiring about Eliot's jet-lag and sleep and his answer was...."tell me Stelio, was this bed made for punishing the sculptors' children when they misbehaved ? "] Then, Eliot asked me, on my way back to France, to use the chateau for some "academic activities". There were only a few possibilities, among them seminars. This is how the Benjamin Franklin-Lafayette Seminars were born. The philosophy of these seminars was, a) to create, for one full week, camaraderie and a family atmosphere, by lodging all participants near each other and sharing the meals, all propitious conditions for exchanging ideas, expertise, funding opportunities and for setting up the basis for future collaborations; b) to create a "forum" for exchange of ideas between academic and corporate researchers and as a result, to insure adequate funding for... c) to facilitate the participation of young investigators, not only by funding their local expenses, but also their travel expenses; d) as for the "formula" of presentations, they had to be short, factual or, preferably conceptual and leave a large margin for discussion; d) one session or two were devoted to a subject dealing with therapeutic matters to encourage the corporate researchers to take advantage of this concentration of specialists in ingestive behaviour. To achieve these goals we had to convince our corporate collaborators, and to many of us had to volunteer to help before and during the meetings.  The first condition was fruitful. In effect, most of our expenses were generously covered by Servier particularly by Dr Madeleine Derôme-Tremblay. At that time I was collaborating with them on the metabolic action of their anorexigenic drug fenfluramine. In addition, Eliot had being using his elegant and persuasive style and was able to obtain additional resources. Alan Epstein was helping us prepare the
program, with a good balance between Americans and Europeans, young people and less young people, and between "feeding" and "drinking" (not only during the buffets...) specialists.
But our needs were extensive and, to economize and balance our budget, we had to mobilize all good will around us; our wives, students, and all our kind colleagues. We had to set up the conference room and improve the acoustics, which were awful, by covering the ceiling with cloth, we had to find the 80 or so chairs, we had to repair some of the showers, etc. Also, we did not spend much for our receptions and parties; we used to go to the supermarket and bring back the best items for a minimum cost. Naturally, taking advantage of my Greek I baptized our seminar "Symphagium". Eliot was enthusiastic about this neologism (although Alan would have prefered the term "Symposium" as a symbol of the "importance of research on drinking"). And the Symphagia took place every two or, often, three years, for 18 years. Among the achievements of these Symphagia I would like to mention the number of inter-laboratory and inter-nation collaborative research programs, the orientation of anti-obesity therapies that were followed by at least two pharmaceutical companies that I know, and the consolidation of research orientation toward "feeding" of young scholars having participated in these Symphagia. Let me add that the leisurely pleasure La Napoule and its surroundings gave to the participants is not negligible, when we know that researchers all over the world are generally poorly paid for their qualifications and thus have little chance of enjoying marvellous spots like La Napoule and its Château. Thus the main goals of our adventure were met and we were almost entering "routineland". But then, misfortune befell us; Alan first; he left us after a car accident in Mexico, leaving behind a vacuum which was difficult to fill. Fortunately, Gerry Smith, an old friend and collaborator of Allan's, joined us and allowed a smooth transition toward the next Symphagia. Then, the irreplaceable Eliot left us; or did-he? His great stature continued to inspire "good spirit" (his favorite expression) among us. There are personalities like Eliot who embrace both scientific and human qualities and serve as a beacon to all of us. Finally, I had my own ski accident that left me tetraplegic, an isolated bodiless head, just two months before the 9th Symphagium in 1999, which I had prepared with particular care, feeling that we were approaching the end of La Napoule's facilities. The 9th Symphagium took place anyway with success, thanks to Eliot's worthy "prince" Gerry and with Corinne Kanakis, our talented secretary, with Henry Coulaud and, from this point on, with Steve Woods who showed the same organizational talents as in practice of Science. As for the last Symphagium in 2002, Steve took brilliantly the responsibility as the American partner, in fact the main responsibility of the last La Napoule Symphagium. Having myself recovered some robot-like mobility, I oversaw the European side of the organization. And then new times, new symbols; a new era was introduced in the spirit of the Benjamin Franklin-Lafayette seminars, in 2006, by Daniel Tomé, Harry Kissileff, Allan Geliebter, Marion Hetherinton, Margriet Westerterp-Plantenga, and Gilles Fromentin, with technical support from Clemence Wegscheider. From La Napoule these seminars have been transferred toward the West, (at Fréjus), as has the centre of gravity of the research on feeding and on obesity. I am certain that this new series of seminars will continue and will improve the level and the spirit of the La Napoule Symphagia. I am glad to see this handing on the torch of knowledge to the future generations. |
